A new ad from Crossroads GPS accuses President Obama of pushing for tax increases without "real" spending cuts as part of the administration's plan to reduce the deficit.

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has launched a new website, GOPhostagetakers.com, that calls 40 potentially vulnerable House Republicans "hostage takers" for refusing to sign on to a Democratic tax plan to extend middle-class tax cuts.

ILLINOIS: State Sen. Donne Trotter (D), a candidate for the congressional seat formerly held by Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), was charged with attempting to bring a gun onto an airplane.

“I heard she lives in Scotland, I thought she was running for Parliament,” Paul said, before wondering how she would commute to Washington from overseas, since the Concorde supersonic commercial aircraft is no longer around.

And Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) won't run against McConnell. "I have no interest in running for that or any other office," he told Kentucky reporters.

President Obama will travel to Detroit on Monday for an economic address, the latest in a push to intensify public pressure on congressional Republicans in the closing weeks of the "fiscal cliff" debate.

Vice President Biden went to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to use the Senate gym and visit friends, according to a White House spokesman.

The White House wouldn’t address a report that it might appoint Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom or France.

Rob Jesmer, the former executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), is joining FP1 Strategies.